Garnetts Wood / Barnston Lays

Also within

Essex County

Condition (Natural England)

Habitats

Bracken scrub, Coppiced woodland

Geology & landscape

Rock Type: Glacial Till

Landscape processes: Glacial

Description

Area,24.6 hectares 60.8 ac Description Garnetts Wood and Barnston Lays are coppice with standards woods, mostly ancient, just over two miles south of great Dunmow lying on glacial silt, sands and gravels and Chalky Boulder Clay. They contain one of the best examples of lime woodland in Essex as well as several other types. small leaved lime Tilia cordata is the dominant tree in the larger Garnetts Wood. Here it is at the western limit of its range in the County. It is locally mixed with hornbeam Carpinus betulus, with oak Quercus robur or birch Betula sp. Ash Fraxius excelsior is found throughout the wood and maple Acer campestre at the northern end. The smaller Barnston Lays is made up of a mixture of ash and maple with oak and hornbeam. It has some invasive elm Ulmus sp. and, in the north, wych elm Ulmus glabra. An area of woodland linking the two is mostly oak and ash with some hornbeam and sweet chestnut Castanea sativa. There has been some modification of the stand in the pastand there are scattered mature Scot's pine Pinus sylvestris and a few Norway Spruce Picea abies with little or no underwood. hazel coppice Corylus avellana with elder Sambucus nigra form the underwood in both Garnetts Wood and Barnston Lays. In the latter there is some hawthorn Crataegus monogyna and pure hornbeam coppice. The ground flora of the woods is mainly bramble Rubus fruticosus agg. or dog's mercury Mercurialis perennis, or mixtures of these species. In the south of Barnston Lays the bramble is co-dominant with bracken Pteridium aquilinum in an open canopy area. The flora includes wood sorrel Oxalis acetosella and bluebell Hyacinthoides non-scripta. There are two ponds and water purslane Lythrum portula, a species found infrequently in the county, is recorded on the site.

Species mentioned

Insects to look out for

These moths, butterflies and beetles are known to feed on plants recorded at this site, and carry a notable UK conservation status — but a host-plant being present doesn't mean the insect has actually been recorded here. Treat this as "worth watching for," not a confirmed sighting.

Host-plant data: Cook et al. (2025), Traits data for the butterflies and macro-moths of Great Britain and Ireland, 2024, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology / Butterfly Conservation; and Padovani et al. (2020), Database of Insects and their Food Plants (DBIF), UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (both Open Government Licence). Contains data supplied by UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.

Plant communities